


Mask of Ice

by 2d66



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/F, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-04
Updated: 2015-02-04
Packaged: 2018-03-10 10:06:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3286340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/2d66/pseuds/2d66
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anna is a young princess who thinks she knows what love is until fate brought her to the mysterious and beautiful recluse living on the North Mountain. Soon she is enraptured in a love that might be the only thing that can save Elsa from her scarred past. AU; not incest but most definitely Elsanna.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This first chapter gets a little dark and a tad angsty. I don't believe it is anything really bad but I just thought I would warn you. And this is Elsanna so if you don't like it, don't read it. 
> 
> I thought I would move this story over here thanks to the craziness going on over at fanfiction.net so it will be updating both there and here. 
> 
> I do not own Frozen.

 A young Elsa lay on her bed listening intently as her mother read to her one of her favorite stories. With gleaming eyes she watched as her mother detailed the epic of the Trojan War; listening with envy as her mother described the beautiful face of the Spartan Queen that launched a thousand Greek war ships. The beauty that her mother described was one that Elsa had always dreamed of. She never wished to look like the goddesses Aphrodite or Athena like most would, she just wanted to be normal.

Normal. What did she know of normal?

Ever since she was young she was cursed with the ever burdening powers of winter. She would forever be cold, never having the ability to create anything beautiful. All her powers ever did was destroy.

Her parents loved her, she knew that much, but even they saw her powers as a curse. They kept her isolated and away from others. Elsa had no friends, no one to talk to; all she had were her books and her stories that helped her to cling on to the distant dream of normalcy.

So she always looked forward to these moments where she would be lying beside her mother, listening to her describing a fascinating epic, and doing what normal kids her age would be doing. Slowly, sleep started to overtake the young girl's inner thoughts as her mother continued on with her story. Soon Elsa was fast asleep with all her worries and burdens drifting away.

Carefully her mother closed her book and bent down to lay a kiss on her daughter's forehead. With a smile she whispered a loving goodnight and quietly made her way out of the room.

Elsa woke up with a start. Something tore through her sound sleep and disturbed her, she just had no idea what. Blinking away the haziness of sleep she looked around in an attempt to find what woke her. In her sleep induced state she failed to notice that her room was unnaturally hot and that a slight smell of smoke was filling the air around her. Slowly, Elsa made her way to her bedroom door hoping to step out and find her parents. Maybe she could sleep with them tonight.

Elsa opened her door only to become panicked as flames surrounded her and quickly spread throughout her room. Filled with panic she rushed into the hall, running in the direction of her parents' bedroom.

"Mama! Papa!" Elsa screamed into the smoke filled hall. Flames danced around her vision as she tried desperately to find her parents in the labyrinth of fire and haze. Tears fell freely over the young girl's cheek only to evaporate before ever hitting the ground. The heat was oppressive, overpowering all of the girl's senses.

All she could feel was the heat. All other feelings and senses were overwhelmed by its sheer power. Every attempt she made to move further towards her parent's room was met with more heat. With every step she grew weaker. With every breath her lungs filled with more black smoke.

"Mama! Papa!" Elsa continued to scream as fear gripped her. Her powers began to unconsciously flow through her but the heat from the blazing fire immediately turned her ice and snow into water vapor.

Large crashes started to echo throughout the house as the building started to fall apart. Frantically, Elsa continued to make her way further into the house in a desperate attempt to find her parents. As Elsa finally reached the door to her parents' room she saw that it was ablaze. Undeterred, the little girl brought her small hands up, starting to conjure up as much of her power as possible. Before she could finish, a large crashing sound echoed from above. Looking up Elsa caught a glimpse of a large burning ceiling support beam before it crashed on top of her, making everything go black.

.................

Wearily she started to come to, only to wish she hadn't. Her entire body ached, her head felt as if it was split open, and she was lying in a pool of water still pinned down by the fallen support beam. The beam laid atop the left side of her face making her unable to move her head. With great effort she slowly brought her hands up to the beam but quickly found it would be impossible to lift. She was exhausted, hurt, weak, and scared to death.

Panic started to course through her veins, the sensation of being helplessly trapped frightened her. Filled with fear, her powers flowed through her fingers against her will. A column of ice formed beside the blonde's head, launching the beam through the air as if it was nothing.

Shaken, the young girl tried to stand on wobbly legs only for the reality of the situation to finally hit her. Looking around her she was met with the image of what remained of her once beloved home. The smoldering embers and blackened wood stood in the place of the once proud building. Everything was destroyed. All of her books, her toys, her pictures, her home. All gone.

Yet the sight that brought the young girl to her knees laid right in front of her. Just beyond the burnt frame of her parents' doorway was what remained of their bedframe. Atop the burned bed laid two charred remains.

Tears started to flow freely down the girl's pale cheeks as she broke down into hysterical sobs. Crumbling to the ground she wept for the loss of her parents, for her home, for her everything. She had nothing left. She was alone.

Somehow she eventually ended up kneeling by their bed, how she got there she would never know. Elsa looked at what was left of her beloved parents. The sight was so disturbing, she couldn't hold back the bile forming in her sore throat. Even after she had nothing left in her stomach she started to dry heave. The sight of her parents, no what was left of her parents, was a sight she would never forget.

After what felt like hours Elsa's tears no longer fell. She couldn't feel anymore, she was numb. She stood, sparing one last glance at her parents' remains, and started to walk away. She had no idea where she was going, it didn't matter. Anywhere she went there would be more for her there than there was for her here.

The sound of broken glass caused her to glance down. The remnants of a mirror laid on the floor but what caught her attention wasn't the broken glass, it was her reflection. Looking down she could see the left side of her face was burnt badly. In fact, it was practically deformed. Her once smooth, pale cheek was now the deep black of charred flesh and deep, red lines ran across her skin all the way from her upper neck to her temple. The sight of the burnt flesh brought with it the pain that Elsa had, until now, been unaware of.

Quickly, with the wave of her hand she created a crude mask of ice to cover the ruined side of her face. The foggy ice hid the deformed part of her face and the cold helped to numb the burned skin.

_At least both my eyes and ears still work_ , Elsa thought mockingly.

Without looking back, Elsa walked away into the wintery night leaving behind the smoldering remains of her once happy life.

**13 years later…**

It all happened so fast, one day the Princess of Arendelle was the sole remaining heir to the kingdom and very single. The next she was engaged to a relative stranger from the Southern Isles. The kingdom quickly began to talk about the arrangement negatively and many of Arendelle's nobles openly opposed the idea. The reason? The Empire of the Southern Isles had long held claim to the throne of Arendelle and had fought several bloody wars in the past in an attempt to finally control the young, yet prosperous kingdom. Therefore, many were opposed to such a quick engagement with the royalty from such a bitter enemy. The King, however, believed it would be a chance to finally ease the tensions between the two nations and possibly secure a peaceful future for his people. Begrudgingly the nobility backed the marriage, and the wedding was planned for only a month later.

It quickly transformed into the social and diplomatic event of the year for the entirety of Europe. Royalty from all over came to visit the union of the two nations. In response, all of Arendelle spent weeks toiling endlessly to transform the small, trading capital of their kingdom into a large, splendid city made for royalty. The Arendellian Army had nearly doubled its size and two new heavy warships were constructed for its navy. The castle staff practically quadrupled overnight, as did the number of diplomatic envoys from the various kingdoms of Europe present in the overcrowded city.

It seemed as if everyone in the world had come to accept the marriage and even unite around it. Well that is except for one: Princess Anna herself.

..............

Anna looked at the man standing before her. He was dressed handsomely in a military uniform common among the royalty of the Southern Isles. The lavish uniform, adorned with numerous medals, complemented his broad shoulders and served to enhance the man's already considerable muscular build. He was absolutely gorgeous, even his unusually long sideburns could not detract from his overall looks. Being nearly a head taller than her, he looked down at her expectantly as everything around the pair seemed to stop.

However, the young redheaded princess was too occupied with her thoughts to notice all this. She waged an internal war with herself as the large group of people that was gathered around the two began to grow restless.

It was just so much, so quickly. She had been on one date with him, and by the end of it they were engaged. Anna had become so swept up in the perfection of the date and of the man before her that she hadn't hesitated in the least when he asked for her hand in marriage. She was confident it was true love.

Now, a little over a month later, her happiness faded as reality finally sank in. She was going to get married to a man she barely knew, a man that most of her people openly despised, and a man that she had only kissed a couple of times.

_But it's true love!_ She tried to remind herself. At this she regained some of her confidence and brought her eyes up to look into the loving eyes of her fiancée.

Finally gathering enough strength, she whispered the simple, but powerful, words that she had memorized weeks ago but had yet brought herself to say, "I, Princess Anna, take thee, Prince Hans, to be my lawful wedded Husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I give thee my troth."

With a wide smile, Prince Hans placed a ring onto his bride's slim, trembling finger while reciting, "With this ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow."

Though still utterly torn within, Anna was able to force out a small smile after the two newlyweds parted from the kiss meant to bind them together for the rest of the lives.

_For better or for worse…_ Oh how she prayed it would at least be for the better.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah this is my first attempt at Elsanna, but I am feeling pretty good about it. This first chapter is kinda short and lacks much dialogue but it was meant to mostly introduce Elsa and Anna. This will be AU and will not have any incest but I will try to stay pretty close to the original characters (hopefully). Let me know what you think! Like everyone else on here I run off of reviews!
> 
> Oh and shout out to Hunhund who helped me get this thing started!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just as a bit of warning this does have some romantic-ish interactions between Hans and Anna (since they are married). Also, things in italics are thoughts.
> 
> I sadly do not own Frozen.

Anna looked at her old childhood room with a mixture of apprehension and relief. She had known very little outside the room ever since she was born, the few times she was able to adventure out and experience life it never extended far beyond the castle grounds. And now she was about to venture out into the world in a way she could have only dreamed of a month ago. Soon she would leave the only life she had ever known to go and begin a new one. Together. With someone she barely knew.

"What is on your mind sweetheart?" the concerned voice of her mother reached her ears.

Turning abruptly at the sudden interruption, Anna came face to face with a worried look only a mother could have.

Sighing Anna turned back around to look at her room once again. "It's nothing. I-It's just a lot to take in I guess. All I've ever known is inside this place. I mean I am excited to see everything out there. Part of me just can't wait another second until I can run through the streets singing as loud as I possibly can. But…" Anna looked away and her mom stayed silent, waiting for her to elaborate.

"But everything is happening so fast."

"It's perfectly normal to be afraid dear. It is a pretty big change for you, and it's natural for you to be overwhelmed or scared of what it," Anna's mom comforted her.

"I know, but how do you know everything will end up okay? How are you so confident?" Anna asked. Uncertainty had slowly started to overwhelm her ever since she had uttered those two simple, yet weighty, words at her wedding. Desperately trying to dispel such thoughts, Anna turned to the person who knew her best.

"Well my little firefly," her mom began. "As cheesy as it may sound, for me I know everything will be okay when I look into your father's eyes because no matter how bad things get I can see the love that still burns in them."

As much as Anna wanted to gag when thinking about her parents in any sort of romantic behavior, she had to admit that argument made her feel a little better. And she really liked cheesy things.

"Besides," he mom continued. "Marrying for love is something that happens so rarely for those of royal blood. Just be glad your father has a sweet spot or you might have been stuck with marrying that bucktoothed third son from the Eastern Plains."

At that Anna's face quickly scrunched up at such a revolting thought. She had to admit that in the greater scheme of things Hans was a good step up from that, and just acknowledging that made her feel infinitely better.

"Yeah mom, I guess you have a point." She still had some doubts, but she decided to simply write them off.

Deciding to change the subject to something more positive, her mother began, "So I heard that you two decided to travel by the North Mountain to reach the Winter Palace."

Quickly perking up, Anna responded with a smile. "Oh yeah! Hans insisted on it because he said the scenery would be beautiful and that he had never seen snow capped peaks before."

"Oh, just please keep in mind that the road through the mountains can be really dangerous, especially during the winter. You could just travel around the mountains now but on your way back in the spring you could go by the North Mountain."

"Oh mother stop worrying so much! We are just going on our honeymoon, not off to battle! Besides Hans seemed very excited about it when he brought it up. I would hate to let him down."

"If you insist. I am sure your father will add more guards to your escort though." Her mom replied quickly. "And I know you have to leave soon so I will let you finish packing." She spoke, turning as she did so away from her daughter.

"Mom, wait."

She turned back to meet her daughter's eyes, "what is it dear?"

"I love you."

"I love you too firefly." Her mother smiled gently before she left Anna alone with her thoughts.

* * *

Leaning out of the carriage window, Anna waved goodbye to her parents as a smile graced her features. Her parents quickly waved back, which was enough for Anna as she immediately ducked back into the carriage. Her joy was positively infectious and it took all of her willpower not to physically jump up and down in her seat. The talk she had with her mother earlier did much to dispel the apprehension she felt towards the huge changes happening in her life.

Looking back out the window one last time she could see her parents' silhouettes fade from view. As Anna fell back into her seat rather ungracefully, she began to replay the earlier events of the previous few days in her head. Everything had gone so wonderfully. Following the ceremony her new husband, _now that will take some getting used to_ , held her hand through all the boring conversations with nobles that the couple was subjected to. She could easily say it was the most perfect part of her short life. It was nearly exactly the same as the many fairy tales she had read as a child. She had found her prince charming and now they would live happily ever after.

Such thoughts only succeeded in drawing a contented sigh from her lips. Before she even realized she had made such a sound, a deep chuckle sounded beside her.

Looking over her shoulder at her new husband, Anna's smile only grew in size. He was looking at her giving her a look that clearly said, 'Really Anna? Daydreaming already?'

She quickly tried to come up with a witty retort in response to his silent poke, but all that she could come up with was sticking her tongue out at him. Which she did.

A generous smile graced his features at his wife's childish antics which Anna counted as a victory in her book. Pleased, she proceeded to poke her head back out the window and watch as the beautiful scenery of the Northern Forests began to give way to snow covered mountain peaks.

She sat back down inside the carriage smiling at Hans as he looked out the window. As she stared at her new husband it only then occurred to her that they never consummated their marriage. Secretly she was somewhat happy about that because she had never done anything more than kiss a stable boy once. To say this was something that she had little experience or confidence with would be the understatement of the year. Even just thinking about it made her blush furiously.

"What is it Anna?" Hans asked, clearly intrigued by Anna's sudden change in behavior.

"Oh, uh, it's nothing," she quickly rebuffed, hoping to speedily end the conversation before more blood rushed to her face. If that was even possible.

Hans tilted his head and gave her a look that plainly said 'yeah right'.

With a sigh Anna relented and began to explain. "Well it's just that after the wedding we never…never, uh, you know…right? I-I don't really know how to say it…"

Hans squeezed her hand while at the same time he laughed hard. Very hard. Quickly, Anna felt like disappearing because that harsh laugh made her feel like a little child who was about to be shown just how stupid they were being.

She looked up at him, silently pleading for him to stop. Her look quickly changed something inside of him once he realized what it meant, and he quickly tried to make up for it.

"Sweetheart don't let it worry you so much, I'm sure you'll be amazing as always." He said as he looked down somewhat ashamedly. "Besides, it'll be my first time too."

Still unsure, Anna timidly asked, "really?"

Hans looked at her with a stern expression set upon his face. "Of course, my love. Would I ever lie to you?"

Satisfied with the answer, she nodded and squeezed his hand to show everything was okay. A somewhat comfortable silence fell over the couple like a cloud. Though no matter how hard Anna wanted to initiate another conversation, something kept her from doing so. As such, neither spoke a word to the other for the longest time.

The only thing that interrupted the couple's silent reverie was the carriage stopping abruptly. The jolt from such a sudden stop threw Anna to the floor with her head practically falling in her husband's lap. Blushing furiously, she looked up to quickly apologize to Hans but whatever she was about to say died in her throat at the sight of his concerned expression as he looked out the window.

A piercing noise outside the carriage echoed loudly and the unmistakable sound of royal guardsmen dismounting from their steeds quickly followed.

"Protect the carriage!" rang the battle cry of one of the royal guardsmen.

"Hans! What's going on?" Anna asked, terrified.

"I don't know. Wait here," Hans said as he stood and drew the sword from its sheath on his hip. Moving past her, he opened the door and stepped outside, closing the door behind him as he did so.

Once Hans had left Anna alone the sounds of combat continued to grow. The clang of metal hitting metal and the sound of metal piercing flesh could clearly be heard through the thin curtains adorning the windows. Soon the unmistakable sound of gunfire erupted as well, and much too close for comfort. Following one such vicious eruption of gunfire, several pieces of lead sliced through the thin wood of the carriage. Anna screamed bloody murder as she looked at the holes in the carriage, not far from where she was sitting.

The door flew open causing Anna to jump away from it in fear only for her to quickly recognize the face of her husband.

"Hans!" She rushed to him to embrace him but was instead violently pushed away. Stunned, she looked up from the floor of the carriage to the face of her newly betrothed. The once perfect skin of his face was now covered in blood making him look completely terrifying. Even to his wife.

"Anna you have to get out of here, now!" He yelled at her, and the look in his eyes told her he would not take no for an answer.

"Hans…"

"There's no time Anna! Run, I'll help hold them off!" he yelled, pushing Anna again, practically throwing her out the other side of the carriage.

Gathering her footing she rose to look back at Hans just as someone ran at him with a sword raised. Seeing where she was looking, he turned quickly and pushed his blade through the assailant's soft, unguarded midsection.

"Get out of here Anna! Now!" he repeated.

Finally accepting the words of her husband she turned and ran away from the bloody battle taking place and unknowingly towards the snow covered North Mountain.

She ran through the tall, thick snow trying to keep her eyes open as tears quickly streaked down her face. Her mind permanently focused on the scene of carnage and death now behind her. Even as she could hear the screams of her soldiers fading into the distance her legs continued to push her on and away from the battle still raging on. Her mind blank, though still occupied by an instinctual need to escape danger, quickly became overwhelmed by the sound of her own heart. Its thunderous beating only growing more intense as her weak legs continued to push their way through the deep and endless snow.

She continued to run even as her senses became consumed by the ongoing thundering echoing throughout her body. Each tree she passed began to look the same. The bare, snow covered trees continued on for as far as the eye could see. Soon Anna could no longer tell in which direction she was going as everything looked the exact same. With no sense of direction and with her lungs burning, she knew she would have to stop for a break soon or she would quickly become lost.

Before she could contemplate whether or not she was safe to stop, she was forcibly thrown to the ground. The force of the blow enough to launch her forward by several feet. Regaining what was left of her wits, she quickly turned to confront her assailant only to be met with nothing. Only the slowly falling snow moved as her head frantically turned in all possible directions. Confusion quickly marred her snow covered face as she saw no possible reason for her to have fallen as she had. A dull throbbing in her right shoulder was all that could pull her out of her silent contemplation. Looking to the source of the strange feeling, her eyes were met with the odd color of bright red. The misplaced color seemed to be seeping out of what looked like to be a hole in her shoulder. Slowly moving a shaking hand towards the hole, her world immediately turned white as her body finally registered the pain that came from a gunshot wound.

Still possessing some ability to think, Anna tried to cover the hole in her flesh with one of her gloves in an attempt to stop the bleeding. It didn't work. Blood continued to gush out of the wound, staining the once picturesque winter landscape with the deep red color of her own life force. Her mind lost all sense of time as she strained to slowly drag herself over to a nearby fallen tree only to have her arm give out from under her just halfway there. Her vision was starting to turn blurry as the edges of her sight began to turn black. Her eyelids began to feel heavy, and she felt sleepy for some odd reason. Yet she desperately tried to keep her eyes open. She knew very little about first aid, but she did know that the last thing she wanted right now was to fall asleep.

As she laid there nearly falling into a state of shock, she could begin to faintly hear the distant sound of someone barking orders and of the footfalls of men running through the rough terrain. Barely able to keep her eyes open anymore, she could just barely see a rifle pointed in her direction from no more than a few yards in front of her. Anna's mind desperately screamed for her to move but her numb, tired muscles failed to so much as flinch as she faced death directly in front of her. Using what little energy she had left, she closed her eyes. For who would wish to see their own death coming?

Seconds quickly turned into minutes. Before long it felt as if she had laid there with her eyes closed for hours. Surely if she were dead she would have felt different.

With every ounce of energy she had left, she pried open her tired eyelids and pulled her head up off the ground just enough to see what fate awaited her. In place of the standing figure that had earlier pointed the end of his rifle at her there was a slumped figure laying in the snow, motionless. Unable to keep her eyes open anymore, her head fell back into the soft snow below her. The sounds of screams faintly registered in her ears before an all-consuming darkness finally overwhelmed her. But an angelic sound floating down from above made it hard to focus on anything else. Barely, just barely, she made out the words that sounded sweeter than honey and more delicious than the most exquisite chocolate she'd ever had.

"It'll be okay, snowflake. I've got you," the sweet feminine voice echoed down to her.

Even though her body protested, a small smile formed on her lips. If she had to die, there had to be worse ways to go than hearing an angel speak melodically to you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big shout out to RaymanK16 for looking over this for me!


End file.
